Steve Jobs' death only one of several major tech stories this week

This morning, the Today show on NBC dedicated almost the entire first half-hour of their program to report on the passing of Steve Jobs.

However, many Digital Music/Tech stories this week have been downplayed in the media.

First, like I mentioned yesterday, Napster is going to be merged with Rhapsody and the Napster brand will be discontinued which will eliminate a major competitor to Apple in the online digital music business. Best Buy, who currently owns Napster, decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

Second, was news this week that Microsoft Zune devices are no longer going to be manufactured. Zune was one of the main alternatives to Apple's iPod. Microsoft also decides to throw in the towel because of Apple's dominance.

These stories come in addition to the recent announcement earlier this year that WalMart was ending its online digital music service that was in direct competition with Apple's iTunes store.

So Apple has managed to knock out 3 major competitors just this year alone: WalMart, Best Buy, and even tech giant Microsoft!

But there are a few other tech stories which are getting very little coverage as well. I will briefly mention them.

First, Western Digital is releasing a new model to the WD TV line. It is going to be called "WD TV Live" which is confusing since they already have a "WD TV Live" model. The new model has built-in wireless unlike the previous WD TV models and some cosmetic changes, but the features and online services are pretty much the same as the older versions of WD TV Live and the Live Plus models.

Second, Archos is now listing at least 2 models of their Gen9 series of internet tablets on their website though they might not be for sale quite yet. The new models appear to have 3G capability in addition to Wi-Fi. But the 3G might not be a built-in feature and may require a thing to be plugged into it.

It appears that the moral of this story is that even though it seems like much of Apple's competition seemed to die around the same time as Steve Jobs this year, there is still some hope for competition and innovative products from companies other than Apple this year.